Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Hi, I'm Wanda and I'm a Slob-a-holic.

So while I jokingly treat being a slob as seriously as being an alcoholic, for me, it IS serious.

Its also fairly new news to me because in the past I've been SOOOO good at blaming EVERYBODY ELSE for the reason my home is a disaster all the time. So why admit it? Why blog about it? Simple. I don't want to be a slob anymore. Once I realized I was a slob, I started thinking I could never change. This was destiny (which bothered me because I'm a perfectionist and a germaphobe - I know right?- and it truly does irk me when I see my home a disaster. Well, then I discovered an incredible blog of a former slob changing her slobbish ways. She has been on the journey for four years! You can visit her blog here:

I'm still reading her blog backwards and she posts so frequently that I'm still in the first year - not complaining - I LOVE how often she posts.

I had an epiphany. What if I did that? What if I had a true and honest account of my progress where I posted my progress daily? (or at least most days.) I need something to keep this in my head even if I'm not successful.

Noni describes her daily checklist, how successful she was, and honestly tells if she isn't successful. I admit, I'll have a hard time telling you I failed...and I WILL fail. However I'm hoping they are small failures that won't keep me from trudging moving on.

So why now? Why all of the sudden try to change? Well its simple. My husband and I are a two person household (making it all the more pathetic that I can't manage our day-to-day lives) and months back had to move in with his family member in order to make ends meet. I swore that while we lived with his family, I would get my act together and keep our portion of the house spotless. I had no choice, it wasn't my house. I felt confident that I would do this, and felt so good about it. I failed. Right out of the gate. Immediately. I have no systems. I had no time to work up to being good at this and if you're not NATURALLY good at this, you WILL fail without baby steps. Trust me, I've tried many times. So, on and off I've tried to get things in order and haven't been successful yet. So again, why now? Well, hubby and I have the opportunity to move in September to a condo owned by another family member who wants to rent it out. It is beautiful and in our budget. I want it to stay beautiful. So I have from now until Labor Day (approximately) to get some routines in place. HELP!

Before going any further I feel that I should tell you that I tried flylady. She worked for me for about a month. Last year, my husband and I went vacation for our anniversary and left the main rooms of our home spotless. (All of them except the bedrooms....oy vey.) It was so wonderful coming home to a mostly clean house. I remember we took our suit cases in, sorted the laundry in our bags, put everything we took away, and immediately - because we came home on a weekend - went to the pool because we could. It was the best feeling ever. I want that feeling back. Forever. Period. Do dah. Sorry I couldn't help myself. Anyway, eventually I didn't keep up with it. We did well in the kitchen because we had a dishwasher, but we don't anymore. I have to handwash everything. Argh.

So where to start? I don't want to start with just one thing. I do want baby steps, but I have to be good at this fairly soon. Luckily, hubby and I are really good about making bed our every day. We have a rule that the last person up makes the bed. Most days, that is him. He is pretty neat and tidy but doesn't actually like to "clean" persay. He will do the dishes though occasionally. So, obviously, making the bed will be on the list. Also, my dear sweet mother always tells me, "Wanda, don't go to bed with a sink full of dirty dishes. You will start your day off on the wrong foot with unnecessary work ahead of you." Oh mom. She is correct. Flylady says the same thing. She calls it "shining your sink." You can visit her website at www.flylady.net to get complete details on how you "should" shine your sink. I want to add to this, having a meal plan, which luckily I have already developed for the week and will post in a separate post after I exercise. So the focus for this week is - make the bed every day, do the dishes and shine the sink, and have a meal plan in place before Monday. (I made this week's plan on Sunday before I went grocery shopping - go me!) I will let you know how my progress goes.

Does this mean that I won't do more than that? No. I will do what I can. But I HAVE to do those things. Those are, as Noni calls them, my non-negotiables. I will add a new one, or readjust a current one, and add it on each week.

I don't want readers. Don't get me wrong, if you want to read this - by all means, read on. I appreciate it. What I'm saying is my goal of this blog is NOT to gain readers, its to help me learn to tackle my home. Also, if you are a blog nazi who believes in only writing one blog post a day, this is not the blog for you. I will post as frequently as I need to about whatever I need to in order to conquer this problem. I will also do as Noni the Slob does on her blog and post my weekly menu plans, exercise details (another thing I'm battling), and recipes I love. It may not be a recipe I've personally created but if I find one that is easy and delicious, I will post it and give credit to where I found it.

On a personal note, I feel as though I need to say something to Noni. I am NOT trying to copy your blog. I am simply trying to follow in your footsteps hoping and praying that this will work for me. I love to write about things, so I'm hoping this will work. I truly apologize if you are offended by this. Please don't be, I give you full credit, you are fantastic, I just feel that this might work for me too.

Alright, so that's enough for one post, time for me to exercise and shower before work. That is another post altogether.

Here we go, no turning back now. This is the first day of the rest of my life.